The dizziness disappeared the moment SV touched the water, his body turning to dust, thereby avoiding the incoming tentacle as it passed harmlessly through him. The dust rapidly dispersed to every corner of the water, and only then did SV feel like he had possessed a body.
SV felt no resistance at all; on the contrary, it felt like he was being warmly accepted.
SV felt himself bathing in warm water. The soothing sensation was rapidly nurturing his spirit, sharpening his senses to extreme heights. He felt the world around him come to a crawl, the trajectory of every particle in the air apparent in his eyes.
Suddenly, he opened his 'eyes'.
The BOSS was hovering above him, rage evident on his face as his tentacles shredded a corpse to pieces. The pieces of flesh wrapped in layers of white and grey silk fell slowly from the air.
The BOSS then turned around slowly and started making hand gestures.
SV 'frowned' and quickly looked at his stats.
======
[Name: Bandit Emperor]
[Race: Human(?)]
[Sex: Male(?)]
[Lv: 10 (Exp: 1000/1000)]
[Class: None]
[Attributes: STR 20, DEX 17, CON 19, INT 17, WLL 18, SPR 15(7437)]
[Talents: Possession Lv1]
[Skills: None]
======
Well damn. He had nothing to fight the BOSS with. Was her sacrifice in vain?
He tried moving his body and felt a part of him rise like a tide, spilling over the edge of the lake.
Oh.
He did have something going for him after all.
—
As the pieces of flesh entered his body and started to sink to the bottom, SV retrieved them and placed them securely on the lake bed.
Immediately after, several jets of water launched towards the BOSS, the BOSS, having been on guard, easily avoided them.
But that was just the beginning.
Several water tentacles rose from the surface like the arms of a kraken. The BOSS sneered and simply waved his own red tentacles, slashing the water tentacles apart, dropping the water columns back to the lake, and avoiding the falling water columns.
SV felt a pinprick the moment the tentacles were cut and immediately changed back to the water jet strategy.
A barrage of jet streams was launched from the surface of the water, each rapidly approaching the boss but easily dodged by him.
SV frowned and increased his concentration.
Faster.
Faster!
The streams gradually became harder and harder for the BOSS to dodge, and he had to raise his altitude slightly to avoid them.
As his attack increased in intensity, SV gradually realized that something was wrong. He was stuck in his current form; why does the BOSS need to bother with him? Couldn't he just keep his distance?
SV looked at the countdown on the mission.
[Duration: 00:13:32]
The formation! SV realized as he turned his attention to the lake bed.
The formation's black glow seemed to be a shade darker than he remembered it. The BOSS seemed to realize his intentions, and a mad look flashed in his eyes, and before SV could muster any form of response against the formation, a tentacle struck the surface of the water.
Immediately, a searing pain assaulted SV, preventing him from effectively controlling his body.
The tentacle itself dissolved in the water, and the red light around the BOSS seemed to be dimmer.
SV keenly perceived the change with his heightened senses as he struck the bottom of the lake.
The formation seemed to waver slightly but remained otherwise unharmed.
The BOSS roared and divided his tentacles into thin lines and stabbed one into SV.
'Fucking shit!' The pain, though less than the previous one, managed to keep him from attempting his next strike.
The BOSS divided the tentacles once more and struck one into SV's body. He had become aware that it had become a battle of attrition. The fewer resources he used, the more he could delay SV.
This time, SV could barely make a coherent response and used what little of his will he could mobilize to strike the formation as hard as he could.
The BOSS looked at the tentacles around him and then back at SV before grinning.
For the next few minutes, SV experienced more migraines than he did his entire life. He swore he'd shred this fucker to pieces if it was the last thing he'd do.
But SV was nothing if not resilient. Each time he experienced the same pain, he got a little more familiar with it and a little quicker in recovering from it.
The BOSS noticed this but remained gleeful, having accounted for a small error margin.
However, what the BOSS didn't expect was that SV had been able to make a move for some time now, but he hadn't. He had realized that his control over his body was growing weaker.
When he checked his stats, he saw that his SPR had dropped to a little over a thousand. He seemed to realize that he and the BOSS were somehow connected.
If at his full power, he could try and break the formation, then now, he wasn't confident, especially so when the BOSS didn't give him time to act. So he was waiting, waiting for an opportunity.
As the red light around the BOSS dimmed, he lost his ability to fly and had to stay at the edge, sending his tentacles into the water. But that was precisely what SV had been waiting for.
With a sudden jerk, the level of the lake rose, and the tide immediately covered above and over the BOSS, submerging him completely and dissolving the rest of his tentacles.
Immediately, a sharp pain assaulted his senses, and his vision began to darken. SV felt the sensation familiar. Like when he had failed an SPR check.
He realized his time was coming to an end.
So before he was ejected from this body, he controlled his body to form a tentacle and bring the BOSS's body lying on the shore into the lake.
He then used all his efforts to crush it.
—
In the death screen, SV looked at the corpse and then the formation, which gradually lost its luster. Did he succeed?
He hoped so.
He prayed silently as he opened his quests.
And then he saw it: the quest was marked as complete. A sigh of relief left him as he clicked on revive.
When he came to, he was floating in the lake. He swam to the shore and lay on his back, staring at the ever-constant beauty of the night sky.
Did that mark the end of the storyline? He still didn't understand many things. And he didn't even understand much of the plot here. Heck, he didn't even know how to leave this place. That was somewhat unsatisfying.
No matter.
He opened his quests and pressed on the reward.
[State your wish.]
A prompt came, requiring his input.
SV sat up and thought about it for a long moment.
Power? Nah, power easily gained was boring. It would make the game tasteless.
Beauty? Like who?
Money? What use did it have?
Beauty? He thought of Yun Jierou for a moment.
Or should he just save it for later? There didn't seem to be a time limit.
"Okay, okay, forget it," he had promised her after all. A bandit doesn't pat his chest for nothing. He was a bandit with principles.
But damn was this cliche.
So frickin' cliche.
He typed his wish into the prompt.
[Revive Yun Jierou and her gang.]
A new message came up.
[Yun Jierou, Li Haoyang, Lie Yinuo, Shi Kexin and Yi Chen will be revived. Do you confirm?]
'Eh, are you asking me?' He was nonplussed for a moment. He never got to know their names. How was he supposed to confirm?
Heck, he'd probably have forgotten them even if he knew. He was never good with remembering random characters.
No matter. He simply clicked confirm.
Immediately, he saw pieces of flesh and fabric leaving the lake and hovering in front of him. Four mangled corpses followed suit and hovered behind the pieces of flesh and fabric.
'Even in death, the hierarchy must be upheld,' SV thought, amused.
The pieces of flesh began to reconstruct, starting to take the shape of a body, the fabric stitching together and wrapping it.
The corpses, on the other hand, didn't need so much work and were immediately restored to perfect condition. But they remained silent.
Finally, as Yun Jierou's body was back to its former shape and her clothes were spotless once more, SV felt a cold wind blow around him.
He narrowed his eyes as he saw the wind blowing around the group, rustling their hair and clothes.
As the wind died down, Yun Jierou was the first to blink her eyes. The group followed shortly after. Yun Jierou frowned slightly as she looked at herself. She raised her hand and looked at her palm before placing it on her heart, feeling its steady heartbeat. She remained silent for a long moment.
The group wasn't much better as they checked their bodies, their missing limbs, and their broken bones. After they were relieved but confused all the same, they saw SV sitting in front of them.
Yun Jierou had naturally noticed SV as well. She cupped her hands and bowed deeply. The group seemed to realize something and bowed deeply as well.
SV waved his hand airily, "come on, anyone would do the same."
Yun Jierou's eyes crinkled as she shook her head, seemingly refuting his statement. Then, she turned to the lake and started pinching her fingers.
SV got up and wondered what she was doing. Well, obviously, she was divining something, but what exactly?
He frowned. The BOSS? No way, right? The quest was complete; it couldn't be that he was not dead yet, right?
Yun Jierou's expression suddenly turned grim, causing her group to square up. Yun Jierou turned to her group and shouted a few words before turning to SV and shaking her head.
'It wasn't over? What the fuck?'
Just then, the BOSS's head popped out of the water, and the rest of his body revealed itself as he took steps forward until he was halfway out of the water.
He simply stood there and looked at the group.
The group hurriedly formed hand signs, but Yun Jierou simply waved her hands, saying something that discouraged the group.
SV raised a nonexistent eyebrow at this strange scene. Did she just give up?
The BOSS then looked at SV.
"□□□□." He said as if lamenting, then shaking his head.
SV was speechless. "I'm sure that was inspirational, but I've got no clue what you just said."
Then it was the BOSS who was speechless for a moment, and the group had blank expressions on their faces.
Then the BOSS spread his hands, and somehow SV could understand what he was saying for a moment: "I wish to remain eternal."
A black light shone from the lake bed and suddenly enveloped everyone.
—
The morning sun hit SV's face, making him frown and turn around to avoid the rays, continuing his sleep on the ground.
Suddenly, he sat up and looked around. He saw a familiar view, graves, walls, and a gate, but with no corpses, no sconces, and more importantly, no unpleasant smell, relatively speaking.
Also.
He looked up and got his eyes burned from looking at the sun. Well, this was really the sun. Had he finally escaped whatever thing he was stuck in before?
"System," he called, but received no reply.
He frowned for a moment and called again.
Again, no reply.
His heart started sinking.
"System!" He shouted loudly, and his heart dropped.